If anything, this 25-song double set sees Belle & Sebastian at their finest.

And to anyone that contends they don't make them like they did anymore: listen to this. They still do.

If you can’t find something here that has you smiling and quoting the old saw about rumours of indie’s death being greatly exaggerated, it’s time to take up opera.

Although "Hypermagic Mountain" is no less a terrifying, red-eyed and rampaging behemoth than its predecessors, the duo have unleashed a beast that assumes a more recognisable form.

TV On The Radio sound wise beyond their years, youthful stars whose mouthpiece contorts itself into funk shapes and whups without sounding like an out-of-depth chancer.

Take the time to squeeze inside, and you'll discover a startling, significant, endlessly inspiring album.

In Hammond, [Waits] has found a worthy collaborator, one who gets to the heart of what these strange lyrics are actually about and imbues their sharp angles, acute observations and nicotine-stained introspection with some real insight and understanding.

Though Manitoba's constructions are joyously slap-dash and defiantly experimental, he still manages to lure the listener in with woozy melodies and strangely beguiling textures.

This time around Polly's drama school project is playing a Rock Star, and therefore this must be a Rock Record. And from the opener 'Big Exit', a simplistic, effective stomper so swathed in echo that she seems to be singing from the bottom of a pit, to the raucous semi-bonus 'This Wicked Tongue', it's just that, a back to basics special.

It's unlikely you'll hear anything as near to perfect, magical and downright lovely all year.

A fine collection of songs from an immensely talented, tragically lost soul.

It's not radically new - although the Timbaland and the Trackmasters contributions are genuinely exciting - but it's exactly what a lot of people want to hear from a hip-hop album right now.

Happily, In Rainbows is pretty, pretty good.

A fragrant bouquet of melody, light, love and naughtiness wrapped in an unfamiliar joie de vivre.

"Fishscale" is a purist's delight, an album seemingly crafted solely for those who've been chasing his maverick tail for the past decade.

“Arular”, as well as being a particularly great and brave album, could well be this year’s Portishead or Massive Attack.

It might not be the dance album of the year - but it's certainly pushing musical boundaries and deserves to be in your record collection.

Ironically, though defined sartorially and sonically by this short window in history, the songs on their debut album are mostly timeless. Few better will be released in 2008.

Panda Bear has created one of the most unusual and beautifully strange statements of the avant-garde.

There will be few better albums released this year.

'The Argument' is the sound of a band stretching out and thereby consolidating their position as a unique entity.

There's a rolling, free and expansive feel to the album as a whole that is not only one of its most attractive features, but is also the most difficult thing about it to pin down.

It's not too ambitious to suggest few other releases this year will match its grace, humanity and power.... A magnificent album.

A deeply special album, and one you hope enough people will allow to get under their skin.

It won't usher in a bold new era where boys are boys and bands play guitars, but there is more than enough here to chew over and enjoy.

As it is, with all their knobs set to downbeat, there's something restrained and knowing here that will trouble some newcomers. Still, there's very little on "xx" to suggest this band will end up on the compost heap.

'Post-rock', which Sigur Rós most assuredly are, may be little more than the shoegazing of a decade ago in an ironic T-shirt, but that's no reason to dismiss it outright. For a start, much of it is very lovely.

If "Neon Bible" doesn't quite dazzle as "Funeral" did, that's more a measure of the latter album's benchmark brilliance, rather than the inferiority of the former.